LAST EDITED ON 04-04-13 AT 07:21 AM (EST)

They aren't that complex, really.

They are pissed off that they can't use their political power to lord it over everyone how Christian they are by bleating loudly at the start of every political function in this state about how they praise the Jebus with every breath.

After all, we wouldn't know they were Christians by their actions so they have to tell us over and over and over again.

That, or, they are afraid they will forget what religion they are if Jesus' name isn't said to them every hour on the hour. Because they will not just do some God give us strength prayer at the start of every meeting of the city council. They have to do a Jesus prayer, with Jesus' name specifically being the one and only God they are praying to.

ETA: Honestly that is the big fuss, the prayers MUST be to Jesus, they aren't even being told they can't have a prayer, just that the prayer has to be sect neutral generic God ones. The constant bleating about praising Jesus to let people know you are a Christian person really rubs me the wrong way. But I belong to one of those Godless Christian sects that supports equality to everyone and letting people know your relationship with God and Jesus by how you treat other people. If you have to tell people every hour on the hour which religion you are, and they can't tell otherwise, you aren't doing it right. phhbbbbbbt. Ecumenical be damned.

Which is why some of us worry about who is going to be judged Christian enough to stay in the state. I may have to move to the Containment Area. (CARY, containment area for relocated Yankees). I'm sure I'll find some acceptance for my Episcopalian ways from those who are escaping the New England Winters.

It’s astonishing how people are all too willing to arbitrarily set aside parts of the US Constitution, just because they are inconvenient. Like the First Amendment. And the Second Amendment.

Devotees of Women’s Sufferage and the Civil Rights movement should take note.

Ah what fresh hell will this be. No really it has the number of the beast. OK let's look at which counties dare to defy the all conservative all the time. Gerrymandering. What do all these blue counties have in common. Colleges. How do we keep college kids from voting. Or dilute there vote. There has to be a way. So if you are a college student and vote in the district your dorm is in your parents can no longer claim you as a dependent on their taxes. Now you will be allowed to vote absentee in your home town. So the next bill I predict is make it that you can't use I'm at college as a reason to get an absentee ballot sent to you. And your parents can't mail you one either.

It's filed here with the S.B. 666 text.

The taxpayer is allowed an exemption amount for each qualifying child, as provided by section 151(c) of the Code for the taxable year, unless the qualifying child has changed their principal place of abode from that of the taxpayer as indicated by the qualifying child's voter registration.

And what if a college student doesn't register to vote, then what? Do the parents have a choice to take a state tax exemption for a dependant simply because their college student didn't register to vote?

As long as your evil liberal spawn aren't going to dare to vote in the state at all they can be claimed as a dependent.

Although I can't really believe that the few always blue counties are that way just from the kidlets voting. They are pretty blue from the people who work or like to live by a University. But it might make gerrymandering in enough surrounding counties if you didn't have the college kids to add to the blueness.

Obviously this bill isn't going anywhere. It is kind of like the legislation that we had here in response to Obamacare's mandate of purchasing health care, you must own a gun too

It does bring up an important point though. This administration has taken the already weakened 10th Amendment and thrown it in the garbage on many issues. Realistically, it doesn't exist if Obama and the radical left set their sites on it. Not even a second thought on "if" it should be a federal issue and not just left up to the states. With a syncophantic media and a large population of low information voters this issue becomes an issue of a naughty state wanting to start a theocracy within it's borders and not an issue of where to draw the line on state's rights and is there really a 10th amendment anymore.

I would also say that the ACLU is wrong in the case that was the precipitant of the legislation. I'm not religious, but a prayer, even an "overtly Christian" prayer, is not establishment. It is the practice of religion, to which we are granted freely. Nobody is required to participate in the prayer, and the federal government itself opens with prayer. I guess we need to have official government "thought police" to determine if it is too Christian. Maybe there can be a whole new level of government employees to rank and compartmentalize officially approved government payers. Wait a minute....

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -Ronald Reagan

Patience. Arizona can't do everything.

As for participation, it's both a test and peer pressure of intimidation. Just try not saying the morning prayer at Catholic school. Go on, try it. I did. It did not go well -- but I was doomed from the outset.

LAST EDITED ON 04-04-13 AT 10:46 AM (EST)

LAST EDITED ON 04-04-13 AT 10:39 AM (EST)

But if the head of the committee was Islam or Jewish or Buddhist or something other than Evangelical Christian there would they be allowed to say a prayer of their faith blessing all the Christian people in the room.

Generally the moderate Christian sects will do a general benediction that is not saying you better be my sect of Christian prayer.

If the only people who dare to pray loudly and publicly at the beginning of a state function are from one portion of one religion (trust me you wouldn't be allowed to pray to Mother Mary or do any of dem dare Catholic Idolatry prayers to start a session) that is establishment of that religion as the religion of that state.

I'm not Catholic but I'm thisclose to making sure everyone know I am paying the nuns say a Novena for the Rowan County Elected Officials and the NC legislature.

ETA: But then again it has been illegal to be an atheist and run for office in this state, and probably you could have ruled out anyone who wasn't a least a person of the book as they don't really believe in the God of Abraham so is that really believing in God?

ETAA: I think the places the ACLU are involved in do have non-Evangelical Christians on the board so there could be some intimidation of a duly elected Jewish by ensuring they are never included in the prayers. We bless everyone on this board except for you and you and you, you are damned to hell but we won't hold that against you at all. When was the golden rule changes to love thy neighbor that believes and worships in exactly the same way you do as yourself. Sounds very Westboro Baptist. We love you by telling you how much God hates you and how much we make sure you are damned for all eternity.

But if the head of the committee was Islam or Jewish or Buddhist or something other than Evangelical Christian

In North Carolina?

I fully expect both laws to pass. And if they're fought all the way to the Supreme Court and then overturned, then the local overturned law says you get to ignore all Supreme Court decisions, so...

The anti-atheist law does not come as a surprise. And I'm guessing that if you told this group of politicians you believed in the deity of Abraham, you would be promptly run out of the party for being a Jew.

So far these seem to be bills written just to die in committee.

That way you can show you are doing the right kind of nothing when it is time to be reelected.

It's the polytheists, the Buddhists, the Hindi, and Shinto among others that get the wet end of this stick.

As well as the Atheists, practitioners of Witchery, and Satanists.

I mean, just try these out in public, and see what happens.

Ball game Prayer:
Oh Holy Father, who art in the deepest pits of Hell, Bloody and Gory and Rancid be thy name Satan, etc...

The pledge:
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag,
of the United States of Amerika”
etc. etc.
”One Nation, Under Zeus (Vishnu, Thor...etc.), indivisible, “etc...

American native:
"May the great Thunderbird God in the Sky rain his wealth on the rattle Snake God in the desert, and give the Coyote God wisdom and cunning.”

Aztecs:
"May the Jaguar God kill that son of a #####. Cortez, quick."